Marketers have come to rely on demographic solutions to establish patterns and trends about the purchasing habits of their customers and how these habits relate to media purchases, demographics, and other factors. Alongside companys' proprietary databases, third party data warehouses have evolved, fashioned by many companies who share information either about specific customers or about data extracted from their customer bases. In both cases, advertisers use the derived information to generate observations relating to their markets, target individuals to different types of offerings and select appropriate media purchases for advertising. In the case of video advertising media, e.g., video tapes that are mailed, internet video streams, or broadcast or cable advertising—there are only limited means to produce personalized versions of the advertisements or direct marketing information that directly takes advantage of the information available about consumers purchasing habits and the like. Mostly, this reflects the nature of the traditional delivery media for video, which, until very recently, provided very limited capability to deliver anything more than a common message. As such, even though companies know a tremendous amount of information about their customers, the ability to leverage this information has been limited by the fundamentals of the broadcast medium, requiring a like message to be sent to all customers. Additionally, the nature of video production, focused typically on one product, does not allow for incremental content changes. This forces advertisers to avoid topically relevant information and offerings.
An early attempt to merge the power of real-time television with the information content of the Internet is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,778,181, Hidary, et. al., dated Jul. 7, 1998 (the '181 patent), in which a user is presented with a video along with related Internet information. A user has a personal computer connected to two signal paths: a video signal and a second separate connection to the Internet for receiving Internet information. To use the described system, the video producer needs to first create the video, encode the Internet addresses (or URLs) of web pages, and then distribute the composite information. A limited portion of the vertical blanking interval (VBI) of the video signal is encoded to deliver the URLs. The client software retrieves and decodes URLs from the video program. These URLs are interpreted, and direct the web browser software to retrieve web pages. The web pages are synchronized to the video content for display. Alternatively, the encoded video signal could be simultaneously routed to a specialized server that decodes the URLs, contacts the addressed Internet server, and directs the server to send the designated web pages via the Internet to the user's PC where they are then displayed. Among the disadvantages of the system such as described, is that the video and corresponding web content are static and defined by the video producer during production. The same URLs are sent to every viewer of the same video. There is no change to the content of the video according to any real-time understanding of the viewer. Similarly, no mechanism is described for changing the content of the web pages in real time either, even if the server somehow obtained information about the preferences of the viewer.
A somewhat selective system is described in Abecassis, U.S. Pat. No. 5,717,814, issued Feb. 10, 1998. The system in the '814 patent includes a capability for a more individualized control over the contents of a requested video program. Segments, or clips, of a video scene are first evaluated and rated according to criteria such as the amount of violence, nudity, or profanity, as well as other criteria related to other elements of the clip (location, time, detail, etc.). Each clip is associated with a record containing keywords related to the subject matter, such as “flag burning,” that a user may prefer not to see. A series of clips (a “program”) is then mapped into a series that constitutes the presentation when viewed in sequence. During run-time, the actual series of clips shown are selected from the library of clips according to the user's preferences. Thus, a viewer might decide to watch a condensed version of a movie without any gore while another viewer may prefer a lengthier version with gore but not profanity. A producer and director can also create multiple versions of important scenes that will be viewed according to the viewer's preferences. As the price of such user-selection, this system not only requires the producers initially to rate, key, and map each segment in a movie according to the various parameters, but also requires a specialized viewing system that can translate the viewer's preferences into the proper selection and mapping criteria for properly sequencing the optional segments during the playback. For example, a specialized laser-disk unit would be programmed to play a specially encoded disk according to the viewer's desires. In a wideband network context, the transmission system would first upload user preferences, omit non-conforming clips, and create the resulting download movie. In any case, the result is a pre-selected set of clips, as a function of the user preferences, that will be played in sequence for the viewer. The creation and inclusion of clips in the program must necessarily precede consideration of the user's preferences. The viewer is not really interacting with the producers, but only the machine making the selection of pre-selected clips. No “new” materials are selected or incorporated into the show during viewing—only “old” materials that have been pulled together as a function of the user's selected preference. Thus, nothing is “created” specifically for the viewer.
A somewhat more interactive solution is described in Freeman, U.S. Pat. No. 5,861,881, issued Jan. 19, 1999, in which a user interacts with a computer to determine which of several cable TV or other audio-visual inputs will be displayed on the screen at any given time. Stored user commands determine which of the multiplexed signals will be selected, and specialized hardware “seamlessly” switches between video channels, such that the user cannot perceive the switchover (other than the change of content). For example, at the start of a sports program, the user can select the preferred language of the audio segments, and whether on-screen graphics (e.g., player statistics) should be displayed. These inputs can be used to insert scheduled “trigger points” into the video or digital program which are later used to select the audio-visual combinations preferred according to inputs by the user. When a trigger point is played, the computer system selects a different video segment, graphic, or audio segment, either from alternate channels, or from a database of such segments downloaded to the computer on a second communication channel (either in parallel with the primary transmission, or on CD-ROM, or at some other time). As with other versions of this approach, the user must intentionally interact with the program to select the preferences. Also, the only selectable segments are those produced as part of the program. There is no real-time search for or compilation of new materials. The user preferences are only evaluated according to the pre-selected criteria that correspond to segment selections. Each video segment is either played or not played; but the video segment itself is not modified according to any user inputs.
The television industry's reaction to the limitations of broadcast medium has been “localism,” that is, an attempt to target audiences by demographic, geographic and psychographic means. Localism reflects market generalizations, often derived from actual profiles and data. Localism is offered in the broadcast forum by buying placements in geographic areas. On cable this can be a neighborhood. On specific television shows it can be via reflecting certain viewer preferences according to demographics, or times of day. The results have left advertisers, who pay by the “eyeball,” dissatisfied with the expediency of their advertising dollars. The cable television industry, in an attempt to respond to these shortcomings and to distinguish its offering from broadcast, is deploying addressable advertising systems which allow advertisers to purchase individual households or even single set-top boxes for their ads, allowing, when combined with household profiles, an extremely fine grain of targeting to reach the appropriate viewers.
This form of targeted or addressable advertising, is similar to the capabilities now found on some Internet services, where single viewers based on their profiles can be targeted with banner ads and interstitials or email. At the same time, Internet advertising is increasing its use of rich media (defined as 20-Kbytes/sec or above), in an attempt to create the type of powerful and effective images we associated with television advertising. Sometimes because of bandwidth limitations and often because of a mistaken philosophy, these ads necessitate consumer interactions. The result, in contrast to television advertising, forces the consumer to interact, distorting the media's capability to deliver a message.
As a means to improve on targeting, designers of Web based offerings began to employ personalization solutions. On the Internet, where many traditional factors associated with purchasing decisions become less relevant, the ability to establish a one to one relationship with a consumer is paramount. Similarly, it is most desirable to offer, if possible, service and products reflecting that one-on-one relationship. To cite an example, Dell Computer allowed customers to build their own computers (mass customization) on the Web, instead of pre-building several different models for different target markets (targeting). Dell and other companies employed sophisticated customer relationship management (CRM) solutions based on general and proprietary technologies.
These CRM solutions, based on a variety of existing technologies, personalize offerings by using a combination of information gathered from the consumers visiting web sites. Such information is typically gathered by asking questions, tracking navigation and purchasing behavior, as well as from information gathered elsewhere.
Yet another step in the enhancement of advertising has been taken recently, as reported in the press. For example, Enliven of Waltham, Mass., offers real-time, database connection capabilities that let advertisers present up-to-the-minute information in Enliven-activated ads. Advertisers can present live information from a database source to a consumer viewing the ad with a proprietary, Java-based viewer. When merged with a marketing database such as TrueMatch, profile-based ad campaign targeting becomes possible. An advertiser creates a template into which graphics and text are inserted, according to the demographic information available about the user. However, even with the additional consideration of demographic information for real-time selection of advertising components, the templates provide a limited capability to effect enhanced advertising. This known system does not include any capability to modify or incorporate video materials into the advertisements, thus depriving the advertisers of the rich menu of video-oriented raw materials from which to draw. This leaves the viewer with little more than an interactive banner ad, perhaps with primitive “effects” that happens to have been “tailored” for publication to that user. There is no capability to change the tempo, music, narration, lighting, or any other elements of the advertising that have been proven successful in gaining the viewer attention the advertisers desire.
Further, even with known interactive personalization solutions in place, text and graphics solutions cannot compete with the masterful ability of video and audio to generate interest, create brand awareness, or product image. Television advertising agencies are master storytellers, using the types of narrative that people respond to so well. Although the Internet is a powerful medium on which to personalize dynamic offerings it lacks the power of traditional television which uses the richest of media to present powerful 30-second stories. The Internet is, by form, an interactive media, with the user typically controlling the type of message received. If the user can control the media message, either through explicit commands about what type of information the user reveals, or alternatively what information the user receives, the power of narrative story telling to a passive and receptive audience is lost.